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Nov 11, 2012 at 12:01 AM

After heart surgery, run helps man overcome limitations

By Jim WareJim.Ware@StarNewsOnline.com

Russell Griffin was stoked for the Step Up for Soldiers Combat Mud Run when he arrived Oct. 6 at the course on National Guard property near Wilmington International Airport.Griffin, 49, trained for six months and earned a spot on a team that included Kim Munley of Kure Beach, the tough cop hero of the Fort Hood massacre who overcame replacement of a bullet-shattered knee to complete the April mud run. Her performance in the spring event inspired Griffin to take on the fall challenge himself.Participants faced a three-mile-long maze of walls to climb, mud-filled trenches to crawl through and numerous other military-style obstacles designed to exhaust even experienced runners."We weren't far into the mud run when it occurred to me that I had taken everything out of my pockets and stored it so that I could go crawl through the mud," Griffin said, describing the dreadful realization that gripped him as he began to negotiate the course. "It occurred to me that I didn't have my nitroglycerin with me."Just as quickly as the fear swept over him, it dissipated with the knowledge that people experienced in emergency medical treatment were spread throughout the course.Besides, he hadn't needed to take the heart drug while recovering from Jan. 13 triple bypass surgery or training vigorously since April for the mud run."I don't think about it every day, but it's there every day," Griffin said. "And there are times when I stop and think, ‘What if?'"Wake-up callGriffin was walking his dog Jan. 8 near his New Hanover County home when he started to feel pain in his jaw, a warning sign that prompted a trip to the emergency room with his wife, Yvonne. Doctors at New Hanover Regional Medical Center discovered one artery in his heart 99 percent blocked and another 80 percent blocked.Griffin had been diagnosed with high blood pressure six months before the surgery, but was unaware of any heart problems. He wasn't much for exercise before then, so he started taking his dogs on more and longer walks.But he continued to smoke cigarettes, just like he'd done for 35 years. Doctors told him cigarettes, and cigarettes alone, were responsible for the damage to his heart."I had my last cigarette on the way to the emergency room on the 8th of January," Griffin said. "I haven't had one since."Surgery put an end to his smoking days."This was a huge wake-up call," Griffin said. "Any time they crack your chest open, it's going to wake you up."As he began recovery, Griffin's surgeon put him on a regimen of walking twice a day, adding time and distance every day. The starting point was five minutes. His goal was 45 minutes. Two bouts of pleurisy – an inflammation of the lining of the lungs – made it hard for Griffin to breathe and delayed his recovery. "Every time I felt like I was making progress, there was something that set me back," he said.He was off work for six weeks from FedEx Office, where he is a lead project coordinator."I was both looking forward to going back to work and scared to death," Griffin said. "You don't know how your body's going to respond."Chance encounterHe went to the April mud run as a guest of the Blue Line Radio show, and to take photos."The first time I met Kim was her crawling out of the mud at one of the obstacles and taking her picture," Griffin said.The chance encounter prompted Griffin to learn more about Munley and the injuries she suffered at Fort Hood, Texas, when she was wounded in both legs and her wrist while helping to stop the attack. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is the accused gunman in the November 2009 shooting rampage where 13 people were killed and 32 were wounded.Munley said one of her knees was replaced after a bullet blasted it into 120 pieces. Doctors built the new knee out of cadaver femur bone and replaced the joint with metal and plastic, she said. Griffin, who grew up wanting to be a police officer, said he wasn't aware of Munley's limitations until the time grew closer for the October run."It ended up being a perfect combination to work together on a team in the mud run," he said.When he had completed cardiac rehab, Griffin continued to exercise in the apartment complex fitness center five to six times a week. He cut back on his intake of fat and carbohydrates."Every time I would get a little bit down, there was always somebody there to pick me up and kind of push me a little bit," Griffin said.In addition to Munley, one of Griffin's inspirations was Dave Libbey, a Wilmington-based private security contractor deployed to Afghanistan. The two kept in touch via Facebook."Just words of encouragement coming from a guy who's over there in the dirt risking basically his life every day, but still has the time to inspire me, motivate me to get back on the treadmill and keep walking," Griffin said.Captain AmericaWhen the Oct. 6 mud run rolled around, Griffin wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the image of Captain America, which he said is Libbey's alter ego."I had really anticipated that Dave would be part of the second mud run," Griffin said. "It didn't work out. He had to go back to Afghanistan."Instead the team sponsored by Blue Line Radio included Griffin, Munley, her fiance Brandon Meredith and her daughter Hope Barbour."We knew going into it our time wouldn't be fast, but we were going to complete," Griffin said.At the last minute, 14-year-old Geordan Ehly was added to the team.Once he had overcome the fear of competing without his emergency supply of nitroglycerin for his heart, Griffin got down and dirty. Walking the course itself and scaling wall obstacles presented few problems, Griffin said, though it was no piece of cake."I would not have made it through the entire mud run without Kim Munley being there," he said. "There were several times throughout the event where I was telling myself, ‘I can't do this.' Whether she sensed that or what, I don't know, but she was able to actually keep me motivated and keep me inspired to keep moving. And I did."Championship feelingMunley said the April mud run was the first on her new knee."Russell took my accomplishment and constructed one of his own," she said. "He is a true inspiration and an example to anyone that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to."Tom Russell, founder and president of Step Up for Soldiers, said he also is a heart patient and appreciates Griffin's accomplishment."It's built so everybody could have that championship feeling," he said. The Blue Line Radio team finished 71st out of 71 teams with a time of one hour, 22 minutes and 57 seconds. Griffin said he was far from disappointed."We did not win, but, yes, we won," he said. "We all completed the entire mud run. That was our goal."Russell said the next Step Up for Soldiers Combat Mud Run will be in late April or early May, depending on the National Guard's schedule. Griffin said he's considering competing next year."It would be really cool to do this again and, every time that we do it, to find somebody else to put on the team that has a limitation, whether it be joint-related or heart-related, whatever they have overcome," he said, "so they can prove to themselves that they can do it."